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I love reading non-fiction about Star Trek and James Bond (and, to a lesser extent, Doctor Who). I love behind the scenes stuff but I think I enjoy overviews and analyses even more.
I recently purchased and just started reading The Man With the Golden Touch http://amzn.to/bFJBIO. So far, I love it. The tone is great - casual, sometimes snarky - an Englishman looking at an english institution.
Reminds me of another book I read a couple years ago that I also truly enjoyed, The Man Who Saved Britain http://amzn.to/b2mTeA. As I remember it, the book intertwined the rise of the Bond films with the decline of Britain's role in world affairs. Also remember quite enjoying it.
I've got shelves full of this kind of stuff. I often find that I like reading ABOUT this stuff almost more than actually watching the real product.
Another symptom, I suppose, of my obsession with my own past, reliving my own childhood or something.
On the Trek front, I just finished reading Star Trek 365 http://amzn.to/a6IEbd. I enjoyed the fact that it actually discussed the music once or twice (including quotes from Jeff Bond). I did find it rather curious that while it made no bones about lambasting the third season, it never once mentioned third season producer Fred Freiberger by name.
Anyway, just felt compelled to share.
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Posted: |
Nov 6, 2010 - 5:54 PM
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By: |
ScottDS
(Member)
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While I'm more of a Star Trek fan than a Star Wars fan, it's a testament to the Lucasfilm marketing people that I own more non-fiction SW books than ST ones. Hell, in the last two months, they've published three non-fiction SW books: The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars Year by Year, and The Sounds of Star Wars.
On the Trek front, I believe the Pocket Books people have claimed that non-fiction Trek books hadn't been selling well (for a number of years), which is why we don't have updated versions of the ST Encyclopedia, Chronology, or a Voyager tech manual. Hopefully this'll change - we've got Star Trek 365, we got a cool art book for the new film, and we got the Enterprise Haynes manual (which is a bit of a disappointment).
I would LOVE to see the definitive making-of book on the feature films, at least the first six.
And I would REALLY love to see Paramount/CBS make a deal with DK so we can get some cool Enterprise cutaway books. 
I do recommend Nicholas Meyer's autobiography (The View From the Bridge) though much of the Star Trek stuff has been covered by him elsewhere (DVD commentaries, etc.).
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While I'm more of a Star Trek fan than a Star Wars fan, it's a testament to the Lucasfilm marketing people that I own more non-fiction SW books than ST ones. Hell, in the last two months, they've published three non-fiction SW books: The Making of The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars Year by Year, and The Sounds of Star Wars.
On the Trek front, I believe the Pocket Books people have claimed that non-fiction Trek books hadn't been selling well (for a number of years), which is why we don't have updated versions of the ST Encyclopedia, Chronology, or a Voyager tech manual. Hopefully this'll change - we've got Star Trek 365, we got a cool art book for the new film, and we got the Enterprise Haynes manual (which is a bit of a disappointment).
I would LOVE to see the definitive making-of book on the feature films, at least the first six.
And I would REALLY love to see Paramount/CBS make a deal with DK so we can get some cool Enterprise cutaway books.
I do recommend Nicholas Meyer's autobiography (The View From the Bridge) though much of the Star Trek stuff has been covered by him elsewhere (DVD commentaries, etc.).
Nick Meyers' book was terrific. http://amzn.to/cDadlZ
Tell me more about that Haynes manual thing. http://amzn.to/cRCQ1n I don't really know what "Haynes manual" is, so I don't know what to expect from this one.
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I had to have every STAR TREK book there was until some really bad novels started coming out in the TMP era, and then of course too many books were coming out to keep up with anyway. The best non-fiction volumes were:
THE MAKING OF STAR TREK (Whitfield)
THE STAR TREK CONCORDANCE (Trimble)
THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES (Gerrold)
THE WORLD OF STAR TREK (Gerrold)
THE STAR TREK CHRONOLOGY (Okuda)
THE STAR TREK ENCYCLOPEDIA (Okuda)
THE MUSIC OF STAR TREK (Bond)
I have some non-fiction Bond too, all in paperback. I bought some of them at a used bookstore back when such things were very cheap (25 to 35 years ago):
007 JAMES BOND: A REPORT (Snelling)
A very fine, early analysis of the Fleming novels through YOLT.
THE JAMES BOND DOSSIER (Amis)
Along the same lines as the Snelling, and published just shortly after.
THE BOOK OF BOND, OR EVERY MAN HIS OWN 007 (Amis)
A humorous but highly detailed manual on the quirks and tastes of the literary Bond.
IAN FLEMING: THE FANTASTIC 007 MAN (Gant)
THE LIFE OF IAN FLEMING (Pearson)
I haven't read it yet, but it has a tremendous cover painting of Fleming posing as Bond between two bikini-clad women.
JAMES BOND: THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF 007 (Pearson)
This book is nonfiction-like fiction, authorized by Glidrose but divergent from the novels.
ROGER MOORE'S JAMES BOND DIARY
This is one I definitely have to read already; he details his experiences on LALD.
THE JAMES BOND BEDSIDE COMPANION (Benson)
A pretty thorough and systematic study of all the novels and films through 1983.
THE JAMES BOND FILMS (Rubin)
A making-of book for the films through 1983, with lots of good photos.
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The Solow/Justman book for me is the definitive insider book on Trek's history. I also have Grace Lee Whitney's memoir.
On Bond books "The Battle For Bond" (on the whole Thunderball controversy) and the new book last year on the making of OHMSS are the two best Bond works ever written IMO.
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best non-fiction volumes were:
I have some non-fiction Bond too, all in paperback. I bought some of them at a used bookstore back when such things were very cheap (25 to 35 years ago):
Bond.
THE LIFE OF IAN FLEMING (Pearson)
I haven't read it yet, but it has a tremendous cover painting of Fleming posing as Bond between two bikini-clad women.
ROGER MOORE'S JAMES BOND DIARY
This is one I definitely have to read already; he details his experiences on LALD.
.
There is a more recent Fleming bio by Andrew Lycett. It is a big disappointment.
It focuses almost exclusively on Fleming's personal life and doesn't go in to the books at any length.
Given the intimate details , a better title might have been THE KINKY SEX LIFE OF IAN FLEMING.
The Moore diary was tie-in to the film and probably past its shelf life
bruce
ps some other good ones:
THE JAMES BOND FILMS by John Brosnan (thru DAF)
and the two books by Lee Pfeifer -INCREDIBLE WORLD OF JAMES BOND(thru the pre-production of GOLDENEYE) and the last one which goes thru TWINE, THE ESSENTIAL JAMES BOND
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I had to have every STAR TREK book there was until some really bad novels started coming out in the TMP era, and then of course too many books were coming out to keep up with anyway. The best non-fiction volumes were:
THE MAKING OF STAR TREK (Whitfield)
THE STAR TREK CONCORDANCE (Trimble)
THE TROUBLE WITH TRIBBLES (Gerrold)
THE WORLD OF STAR TREK (Gerrold)
THE STAR TREK CHRONOLOGY (Okuda)
THE STAR TREK ENCYCLOPEDIA (Okuda)
THE MUSIC OF STAR TREK (Bond)
That was my story, too. Loved buying ST boks, but I atually never really got into the novels at all, for some reason.
And I, too, bought lots of Bond stuff in paperback 25 or 30 yrs ago. Good times...
I have some non-fiction Bond too, all in paperback. I bought some of them at a used bookstore back when such things were very cheap (25 to 35 years ago):
007 JAMES BOND: A REPORT (Snelling)
A very fine, early analysis of the Fleming novels through YOLT.
THE JAMES BOND DOSSIER (Amis)
Along the same lines as the Snelling, and published just shortly after.
THE BOOK OF BOND, OR EVERY MAN HIS OWN 007 (Amis)
A humorous but highly detailed manual on the quirks and tastes of the literary Bond.
THE LIFE OF IAN FLEMING (Pearson)
I haven't read it yet, but it has a tremendous cover painting of Fleming posing as Bond between two bikini-clad women.
JAMES BOND: THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY OF 007 (Pearson)
This book is nonfiction-like fiction, authorized by Glidrose but divergent from the novels.
ROGER MOORE'S JAMES BOND DIARY
This is one I definitely have to read already; he details his experiences on LALD.
THE JAMES BOND BEDSIDE COMPANION (Benson)
A pretty thorough and systematic study of all the novels and films through 1983.
THE JAMES BOND FILMS (Rubin)
A making-of book for the films through 1983, with lots of good photos.
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Not that it's earth-shaking, but I wrote the original list of my Bond non-fiction books from memory, and I forgot to include this one:
IAN FLEMING: THE FANTASTIC 007 MAN (Richard Gant, 1966).
Together with Pearson and the Lycett title Marshall mentioned, that makes three Fleming biographies. That's more than most novelists get.
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Not that it's earth-shaking, but I wrote the original list of my Bond non-fiction books from memory, and I forgot to include this one:
Together with Pearson and the Lycett title Marshall mentioned,... .
they call me MISTER Marshall
LOL!
Zap, do you have more Bond or more SS Titanic books?
brm
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Zap, do you have more Bond or more SS Titanic books?
It's no competition; more Bonds, especially if you count the multiple editions of Bond novels I've accumulated. Nothing valuable, all paperbacks.
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my most valuable is YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE first edition paperback (app 10 bucks last i checked)
also have the PLAYBOY from '65 with the Sean Connery interview
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Star Trek 365 is better than I expected. There are some great, rarely or never seen stills and some interesting tibnits that aren't necessarily the same facts regurgitated after 40 some odd years. If nothing else, it's a great bathroom reader. I agree that the Justman/Solow Trek Inside Story book is probably the best behind the scenes tome out there. It's refreshingly ego free and does a good job of deflating some myths while still retaining respect for certain individuals. They deftly counter Shatner's fictional version of the history without once saying he was putting himself into situations he would never have been involved in. It's not perfect (ask Harlan Ellison), but it's really a great book and the capper, IMO, on the original Star Trek's history. Well, okay, I would have loved a Fred Frieberger book about the third season, but that never happened, the guy's gone, and he reportedly wasn't keen to talk about it much. Side note: much as I note Frieberger's ultimate responsibility for the quality of the third season, the guy gets so little respect even from the Trek guys themselves. If you watch the DVD/BD special features on the third season, they never once mention him by name. Come on, he wasn't Satan, just a guy who should have been writing westerns or cartoons.
Further off the topic a little, one book I enjoy The Complete Making of Indiana Jones: The Definitive Story Behind All Four Films by J. W. Rinzler and Laurent Bouzereau. The title is a little long, but the content is incredible. Lots of great pictures and concept art, plus early screenplay drafts and story ideas. It also presents a pretty (I assume) honest picture about the writing process and why it takes so long to get these damned things going (hint: George Lucas and his insistence on using certain story ideas that Speilberg and Ford had no interest in). Great book and an essential part of the Indy Jones Fan library. I'd enjoy a Star Wars book that comprehensive and (again, I assume) honest.
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I would have loved a Fred Frieberger book about the third season, but that never happened, the guy's gone, and he reportedly wasn't keen to talk about it much. Side note: much as I note Frieberger's ultimate responsibility for the quality of the third season, the guy gets so little respect even from the Trek guys themselves. If you watch the DVD/BD special features on the third season, they never once mention him by name. Come on, he wasn't Satan, just a guy who should have been writing westerns or cartoons.
It's such a strange thing. It really stood out to me that his name was never mentioned once in Star Trek 365. Bless his heart. I still remember when Space 1999 year two was being publicized, he was "the man who saved Star Trek!" Or so I recall. I ought to go dig out my old Starlog magazines to see how he was discussed back then...
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My Star Trek non-fiction (not counting a hundred magazines):
(Photo deleted, see below)
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Zap! No actor biographies and/or autobiographies?
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Zap! No actor biographies and/or autobiographies?
Just CHEKOV'S ENTERPRISE, because I had met Walter Koenig momentarily at a small ST convention in 1980. They ran out of his book so I bought a second copy of the TMP novelization and he autographed that. Then I bought his book at a store a few days later. The best bit I remember was his description of the pain when male cast members tried to sit down for the first time in their pastel uniforms, the ones with the shoes (idiotically) sewn into to the pants.
Now I remember that I also own Shatner's excellent book STAR TREK MEMORIES in hardcover, but it's in the linen closet (small apartment) and entirely slipped my mind. Damn it.
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That's a fantastic collection, Sig. I'll have to get some of those bios eventually.
I reshot my picture to include what I had forgotten, namely Shatner and Nimoy:
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Whenever I recall the "Star Trek" tell-all books, I'm reminded of the literary concept of the "unreliable narrator". It's used in first-person narratives when the narrator of the story is misremembering, overly naive, or just plain lying. This is what makes the movie "Rashomon" so compelling; since the different points-of-view are in play, the truth lies somewhere in between the scenes of the movie or the words of the books.
Take for example the two biographies of Gene Roddenberry. "Star Trek Creator" treated Roddenberry as some kind of science fiction prophet who could do no wrong; "Gene Roddenberry: The Man and the Myth" was pretty much a hatchet-job, portraying Roddenberry as a cold-hearted opportunist. (One of the books was "authorized". Guess which?)
And I have to admit that I'm always amused by the Shatner-bashing some of his co-stars engage in. It's almost as if they have a vested interest in not letting bygones be bygones. Because, let's face it, keeping the grudges going keeps the spotlight on the bashers.
This could be a showbiz thing; I've had co-workers in the past who've done some pretty shitty things to me...but I can't even remember their names anymore. I gave showbiz a try in my youth, and I'm glad I left it behind. People were still complaining about this part or that part that they lost a decade or so previously, and held grudges for-bloody-ever.
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